The Wings Of A Goddess
by Katfosel
Summary: Max has an expiration date! And when the flock kicks her out, thinking she's Max II, one shock just piles on the rest as she tries to cope. Things can only get worse when she crashes into a gigantic flying mountain... or can they?
1. Suspicion

**I really, truly, hate myself. This is the final straw. I AM WAY TOO AMBITIOUS! AND STUPID! D: see, this makes like six fanfics, five of which are active (well, one's technically a one-shot for the time being… :3) and being worked on, one of which is a **_**school project**_** that is due on Monday! This will be the death of me, I swear.**

**But alas, here I am, writing another fanfic. I have so many ideas and if I don't get them down on paper/in typing then they will dissolve and I will forever mourn them. RIP lost ideas.**

**I've read many fanfics that are basically the exact same as this – Max gets kicked out, becomes a Greek goddess, then the flock joins CHB a year later. But **_**none of them ever get updated! **_**I've read so many amazing ones that people have just forgotten! Also, none of them have very detailed beginnings, of Max being kicked out. I think I might just devote this whole first chapter to her getting kicked out. Let's cross our fingers and hope it will be over a thousand words XD**

**So this is my pledge – I will write this fanfic and try to upload **_**at least **_**once a week. That is my vow. Muhahahaha! (btw this takes place after TFW and TLO)**

**So let the challenge begin…**

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Max POV

Yawning, I strode into the bathroom to brush my teeth. After a whole bunch of Antarctic adventures, I was more than ready for the break. It seems the rest of the flock felt the same way, so we settled back into our E house for a few months. Who knows how long we'll stay or how long it takes Jeb to find us again and sweet-talk us into saving the world. Or, more like sweet-talking _me _into saving the world. Ugh.

As I made to scrunch my hair up into a ponytail, I caught a glimpse of something on my neck. Was that… my eyes widened and I stumbled back, then twisted, frantically trying to see my back clearly in the mirror.

_No, it can't be! I thought I was supposed to save the world! Or something like that…_

o.O.o

Gazzy POV

"Morning, Max!" I chirped cheerfully. She was wearing a hoodie with our 'required' slashes on the back and was pouring milk carefully into six cups. Turning, she tried to smile, but it turned out more of a grimace.

Frowning, I pattered up and peered over her shoulder. "What's wrong? Nightmares?" She shuddered, then nodded with her lips pursed.

"I guess I just didn't sleep well," she muttered, then turned and tried to brighten her smile. "What do you want for breakfast?"

Shrugging, I just ignored her behavior. We all had nightmares, and sometimes lack of sleep can be a little harsh the next morning. Stretching, grabbing a cup of milk, and plopping down at the dining room table, I grinned and replied cheekily, "Eggs. But let's let Iggy make them." Downing my milk in one gulp, I pretended to be scared of the dagger glare Max was giving me.

At least it had cheered her up a bit.

o.O.o

Iggy POV

_Ack, not again,_ I thought as my hand smacked into the dining room table. "Did you guys move the table again?" I asked irritably, nursing my bruised knuckles.

Gazzy scoffed. "Come on, dude, you know it gets moved every night! You purposefully knock something off the table, use your blindness as an excuse, Nudge goes on and on and on and on and on about something that doesn't matter in the slightest – let alone has anything to do with the topic on hand – Angel's just quiet, Max tells you off, and Fang's even more quiet. Then everything erupts into a full-blown pillow fight with the cushions from the couch and _everything_ gets moved around. Aren't you used to it by now?"

"You forgot the part where Total comes running in complaining about pastries," I grumble, but flop down on the couch and searched for the TV remote with my hand. Somebody placed it in my palm and as I brushed my fingertips across their skin the pale color registered as Fang. "Make some noise!" I complained, flipping the TV on and skipping to my favorite show.

"Listen to the radio," he counters, then continued finger-combing his hair (I can hear his hands rustling his hair, cause I'm just amazing like that) as he made his way to the kitchen.

Angel came skipping in, whistling cheerfully. "Hey Max, what's for breakfast?"

"Um- uh, I don't know," I heard Max stammer. "Gazzy said you should make eggs, Iggy. Apparently my cooking skills are yet to be appreciated." I heard the joking tone to her voice, but somehow it didn't quite come through. Something was up.

"Bad dreams?" I quipped as I passed her, locating the cupboard with the frying pan and opening the fridge. Max jumped slightly, the pads of her bare feet skipping a little on the floor.

I heard a sigh. "Worse than usual. Sorry, I'm a bit out of sorts…" she trailed off.

_Out of sorts is right. But I don't think it's just nightmares…_ I thought.

o.O.o

Fang POV

I narrowed my eyes at Max. I could tell Iggy was trying to coax something out of here, but she just fibbed about nightmares and dashed off to wake Nudge. Normal Max wasn't nervous around us, even when she did stay up all night because of nightmares. Nightmares made her edgy, sure, but all around just more bossy and irritable towards us. No, something besides sleep was unnerving her today.

Even if I could read her face as well as my wingtips, I couldn't put my finger on what was going on with her. She sure had chosen a strange outfit today – Normal Max didn't often wear hoodies, unless we were going on a trip or something. Hell, she'd come skipping in here in a tanktop most mornings.

"You guys notice it too?" I muttered to Gazzy, who nodded and glanced at Iggy. The blind strawberry-blonde was busy at the stove scrambling eggs, but he'd heard us and jerked his head slightly.

_I'll find out what's going on with her, _Angel offered telepathically. We'd gotten a little too used to her weird ways of communication. Sighing, I turned and raised an eyebrow at her, but at the same time gave her an almost imperceptible nod of the head. She grinned and skipped off towards Nudge's room.

o.O.o

Nudge POV

"Hehe, butterflies are so pretty!" I giggled in my land of mystical golden sunlight and green grass. Everything was candy pink, canary yellow, azure blue, or deep glittering gold here. It was so pretty. And then there was the shimmering green grass of all different shades.

But noooo, Max just _had _to interrupt my paradise by shaking me awake.

"Come on, Nudge, it's another sunny day," she said half-heartedly. Okay, _now_ I was awake. Max was _never _half-hearted in shaking me awake and boring the same 'it's another sunny day' deep into my dreams. But today she just shook me awake, droned the wake-up line, and cleared out.

That does it. Just then Angel came skipping in, skidding to a stop when she found Max wasn't there. "Was Max just here?" she asked.

Nodding tersely, I thought (hoping she'd pick it up) _'What's wrong with Max?'_

Angel sighed and shook her head to show she'd heard. _We don't know. Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy all noticed it too._ Then she walked out, me following anxiously. When we reached the kitchen, Max was sitting at the dining room table trying futilely to keep up a conversation with Mr.-No-Emotions-Cause-I'm-A-Rock Fang, who just nodded or shook his head and quietly shoveled scrambled eggs into his mouth. Iggy was still at the stove and Gazzy was hovering nervously behind him, casting glances at Max every few seconds.

Great. I wished I could just go back to my dreamland with the pretty pink butterflies.

o.O.o

Angel POV

I tried to see into Max's thoughts, but they were such a swirling storm of sadness, confusion, anxiety, and hesitation I couldn't pick out any intelligible snippets. It was like a hurricane of regret and nervousness. What could possibly drive her emotions to such extremes? 

_Gazzy. Iggy. Fang. Nudge. I can't read her thoughts! There's so much going on, there's no way I can make out a single word, let alone a sentence to figure out what's wrong, _I thought frantically to the others.

_Great. Now what?_ Iggy moaned.

Fang stopped eating and gazed thoughtfully at Max, who was staring out the window, spacing out. _Very _un-Maxlike. _I don't know what's going on, but something's __**really**__ bothering her._

_No duh, Sherlock,_ Gazzy managed to do a thought-impression of Max that startled even me. _So what do we do about it? _he asked in his normal voice – well, thought-voice.

I sighed internally. _What if she's not Max?_

This startled the others. _You mean… like, Max II? _Nudge asked nervously.

_That's exactly what I mean, _I said grimly.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o

**well, it's over a thousand words. Hehe. ^.^**

**~DeaththeKidKat**


	2. Regret

**Heya! I wuz bored so I'm uploading the next chapter… hope u like :o**

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Max POV

I couldn't focus on anything, not the conversation about hawk's flying formations I'd tried to strike up with Fang or the scrambled eggs smelling like heaven right in front of me. All I could think about was my expiration date. _4/3/12._ That's… eight days from now? Right, it's March 26th. So I have eight days to live.

Normally, I'd be okay with it – eight is a pretty good number. Symmetrical. But I have a flock to look after. And my asymmetrical, kick-ass, perfect-in-their-own-way funny flock needed a leader. Not Angel. They needed me. Or I liked to think they did. I knew I needed them.

Then I noticed they were all staring at me. Snapping out of my trance, I glared at them, but it faltered when I lingered too long on Angel's sleep-messed-up blonde locks. Angel. My baby. I couldn't leave her. I couldn't leave any of them. So the next few words that came out of her mouth nearly made me die of a heart attack right then and there.

"Max. Leave."

o.O.o

I almost fell out of my chair, but stood up then staggered back again. "W-what?" I stammered, trying to breathe.

"You heard Angel. Get out," Nudge said icily. Nudge. My Nudge. Why? What was making them… _hate_ me? What had I done?

"What?" I said again. "Look, I'm sorry if I've been a little distant today, but it's just because… because…" I faltered. I couldn't do this. I couldn't tell them. Not my flock.

Even Fang joined in. "Max – no, why are we calling you that? – I mean, _Max II_, you don't belong here. Now bring back the real Max and get out," he said softly yet menacingly. I couldn't move.

"You… think… I'm… _her?_" To my surprise, I spit all four words out, but then nearly crumpled again when the look in Gazzy's young eyes stopped me. He looked… sad. Like he regretted doing what they were doing. But he wanted his leader back. He wanted the real Max back. But that's just it… I _am_ the real Max. Why couldn't they see that?

"Of course. Max doesn't offer to cook breakfast, then forget to remind Iggy to do it instead. Max doesn't just shake me a few times then walk away. Max doesn't space out. _You're. Not. Her._" Nudge spat the words out as venomously as I had mine. "Now what have you done with her?"

I had to tell them. Even if it broke them. Even if it broke _me._ They had to know. Even if I was going to die, I didn't want to die hated. Die broken inside and out. I wanted to die with my family.

But what I did totally ruined any chance of that.

"Fine." My voice cracked and I swallowed. "Fine. I'll leave. But you should know… I _am_ the real Max." And as a 'parting gift,' I shook off my hoodie and pulled my hair aside, spinning around to show them the truth. The absolute horror on all their faces nearly broke my heart. But I ignored it and just threw the hoodie aside, now only in a slim elbow-sleeve shirt that was probably the only clean one I owned. Thankfully I was already wearing my boots and jeans, us having to be ready at any time, so all I did was stalk over to the door that literally dropped off into nowhere. As I turned to look at them one last time, all I could focus on was Gazzy's mouth slightly open, Angel's sad and wide blue eyes, Fang's frozen features, Iggy's blind eyes blinking rapidly… and Nudge's slight outstretched hand. Like she _wanted_ me to stay.

But I jumped out the door backwards anyways.

o.O.o

For a few seconds that felt like millennia, I considered not opening my wings at all, dying here and now. But no, if I was going to die in eight days, I wanted to die flying. Since my family had denied me the option of dying with them. I'd die broken, sure, but I'd die the way I wanted to.

Free.

Snapping my wings open, I pulled up a mere three hundred feet from the ground, and soared away. I didn't look back. Not once.

I couldn't.

So I just glided, turning my face into the sun, letting it warm my golden-brown wings with their lovely fringe of white. My brown hair with blonde streaks. My face that, now, I realized was streaked with tears.

And I chased the sun.

o.O.o

_Eight Days Later…_

Today was the day I died. I'd spent the last week scavenging food from random Dumpsters, not particularly caring what I ate. I just wanted to survive until today. I wanted to die with the sun on my face and the wing whistling through my feathers. I'd fall, sure, but maybe somebody would find me. Bury me. Actually, I'd probably rather be cremated. But what could I do? Leave a note taped to my shirt – _'Hello. I died, obviously. Could you cremate me? Thanks. ~Max.'_ I don't think anybody would particularly care about a dead girl. Then again, there were the wings.

Why was I brooding about this stuff anyways? There wasn't any point to it. I wondered what time of day I'd die. In three minutes? Three hours? Sunset? There was no way to know. My expiration 'barcode' only had the date, no time or anything. So I'd stay afloat, rising on random thermals for as long as possible.

My end would come. I just had to wait.

It was a while before I realized that I was drifting over New York – to be more precise, Long Island – and that the random thermals were almost a solid block, the acres of pavement heated by the weak spring sun giving off waves of cushioning air. Where we had gotten those makeovers, so long ago. But I had no time to stop and sightsee. I had to stay aloft.

I was flying over the Empire State Building, not really paying attention, when I slammed into something… _solid?_

"What the…" I cursed, pushing off the hard surface and shaking my head hard. The smash had dazed me a little, but I did notice what was _right in front of my face._

Kind of hard to miss the _freaking mountain_ floating in midair.

"This is crazy," I muttered. "I must be dead already and I didn't notice. Is this heaven?" Still not really paying attention, I found myself gliding up the side of the mountain, towards a gigantic pavilion gleaming white and gold. I heard voices booming from inside.

Landing, I peered inside. Was this really heaven? Was God or something inside?

Ha. If only I knew how close that guess was.

Peeking around the corner, my jaw gaped in shock. Twelve _ginormous freaking people_ were sitting in various thrones, arguing in surprisingly rather normal voices. Two people (normal sized) were standing in front of the U shaped ring of thrones. At least they looked a little nervous at the sparks flying between these giants.

Literally. There were arcs of lightning crackling around the guy at the head of the U, as he boomed at his comrade, who sat in a fishing seat with a rather impressive tan and black sea-cropped hair. While the lightning dude had a lightning bolt in his hand, all the fisher guy had was a fishing rod. Wow. As I watched, however, it glowed and transformed into a trident.

I tried to focus on what they were saying, still rubbing my eyes in disbelief.

"I told you, brother, we need another minor god!"

"Why? We have enough, surely."

"Yes, but what of the reports? These children being tested, mutated, experimented upon. They should at least have a guardian," the fisher guy argued vehemently.

Finally after some more arguing, lightning dude gave in and waved his lightning bolt dismissively. "Very well. But _you_ have to find the mortal we'll turn into the god or goddess of… whatever."

So naturally, at that moment, I gave my rather impressive audition for the part of Goddess of Mutations.

I fainted.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

**hehehehe… XD oh Max… *shakes head***

**~DeaththeKidKat**


	3. Power

**Well, you people are reading this second-hand. Just warning you. :3 a sneak-peek of this chapter was my birthday present to my friend, sesame2009. ^.^**

**Anywaaayyyyys… some percy pov! As you can obviously see… right there… \/**

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Percy POV

I shifted nervously, casting a glance towards Annabeth, who stood next to me. She grimaced as we waited for Zeus and Poseidon to quit arguing about this issue over a minor god. "Dad?" I interrupted. "Why exactly did you call us here?"

Poseidon stopped debating for a moment and looked at me with a sigh. "Because Chiron is busy with camp repairs and I needed to get a message to him."

For some reason this was ridiculously funny and I snorted. "Uh… couldn't you have just sent him a magical seashell with a message carved on it?"

"Yes, couldn't you have?" Hera said irritably.

"I hope that the new god is tough," Ares growled. "I'm gonna beat 'em to a pulp. And they can just keep coming back for more!"

I rolled my eyes. "You realize that's more or less exactly what you said to me the last time I was standing here?"

"Exactly, punk."

"ENOUGH!" Zeus bellowed. "Poseidon, I agree with your reasoning, but I don't see why we have to do this now."

"I told you, brother, we need another minor god!"

"Why? We have enough, surely."

"Yes, but what of the reports? These children being tested, mutated, experimented upon. They should at least have a guardian."

This went on for another fifteen minutes before Zeus surrendered and ordered my father to find his own mortal to be made into a god.

Just then I heard a thump behind me and whirled, instinctively drawing Riptide. A girl with just-past-shoulder-length blonde-streaked hair and a dirty shirt was lying on the marble floor. Annabeth and I ran over and propped her up. Both of us gave rather undignified shrieks and leaped back a little.

"What's wrong?" Poseidon frowned.

"Um… she's got… uh…" I stammered, slowly stepping closer again.

"Yes?" Zeus asked, exasperated.

"Wings." Annabeth turned the girl over slightly to reveal two long, feathery, golden-brown-and-white wings growing out of her back.

Hades, on the other side of Zeus, grinned. "Looks like we found you a minor god, Poseidon."

o.O.o

Max POV

When I came to, I distantly heard a gruff voice announcing something along the lines of finding a minor god. What? Then I remembered where I was and what had happened and shot to my feet with a gasp.

A girl and a boy around my age who were sitting in front of me jumped back, startled.

"Who are you?" I hissed, raising my hands into a defensive karate position. "Where am I? What do you want with me?"

"Calm down!" the girl said, reaching out, but I took this the wrong way and flinched away, flapping my wings involuntarily to hoist myself a little ways into the air. The awed looks on the two kid's faces contrasted sharply with the mixed looks on the giant's faces. Setting my face into a determined mask, I flapped hard and raised myself another couple of feet, to a ledge at the top of the pavilion place. By now I was probably about thirty feet in the air.

The guy at the head of the U of thrones sighed and pointed his lightning bolt at me. My eyes widened and I winced, waiting for some zap of electricity, but he just said "Come down. My brother has a favor to ask of you."

"Yeah, well, I'm afraid I won't be much use to you. I'm supposed to expire today, and I'd like to be flying while I do, so if you'll excuse me…"

"Expire?" the boy with black hair and sea-green eyes (that peculiarly matched the eyes of the fishing-pole dude) asked, confused. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes." I glided down and turned, pulling my shirt down a little. "See that barcode? And the date? The date is today, meaning that my life 'expires' today. If I slump down and die it's because of that. Don't ask." Her voice was full of snark, and she turned around to face us with a set jaw. "So do whatever the hell you want with me."

Fisher Dude smiled slightly. "Can we make you into a god? Then you won't have to die."

I pondered this. Immortality? Sure, why not. In the eight days since I'd left I'd realized one thing – I hated my flock. They'd mistaken me for that _girl_, someone who didn't deserve to be called Max. There was no way I was ever going back to my 'family.' Well, I guess they weren't my family anymore.

Shrugging, I snorted. "Sure, what the hell."

o.O.o

Max POV

The day after I was supposed to expire, I was soaring happily above the clouds, circling around Mount Olympus. Basically Zeus had pointed his lightning bolt at me and said a bunch of words in some fancy language I didn't know (later I found out it was Greek, go figure) and turned me into a god. Which basically meant I was immortal, had a bunch of cool powers, and could vaporize people if they saw my true form.

What I would give to 'show' the flock that.

As I landed on a cloud for a moment to catch my breath (oh yeah, I can do cool stuff like that), I took a moment to glance at my wings proudly. They had gone from brownish to a pure gold color, and weaved into the white fringe were streaks of silver and other rainbowy feathers. My hair had gone completely blonde, almost golden colored, and my dull brown eyes had transformed to something I could only describe as molten chocolate. See? I'm getting poetic, too.

Oh, and I could speak and understand Greek perfectly. So naturally I changed my name a little – Vólta, or βόλτα, which basically meant 'Ride' in Greek. Everybody called me either Ride or Volt. Hmph. Not a very imaginative lot.

But I could fly the speed of sound (sonic booms baby!), call birds to me, _speak_ to birds, and had grown some very cool other mutations – cat ears and a wolf tail. Heck yeah. Both were golden, and the tail had rainbow streaks while my ears had white inner fur. As I flicked them this way and that (and made them disappear and reappear, just for the fun of it) I pursed my lips and glanced down. Guess it was time to make my way to Camp Half-Blood. Apparently they wanted me to go and get introduced and everything, as well as help design my cabin. Ladidah.

Leaping off the cloud and executing a perfect flip, I snapped my wings out just a little ways to streamline my descent. As I neared the ground, hurtling faster and faster, I broke the cloud barrier just as the loud _boom _announced my sonic boom. Now I was going close to seven hundred miles an hour, but I spread my wings out all the way and braked before skidding to a stop on the beach.

Glancing around nervously, I involuntarily changed my slightly wavy hair to perfectly straight platinum blonde, made the ears and tail disappear, and folded my wings tightly. As an afterthought I willed my clothes to change into a slim gray t-shirt and skinny jeans, complete with white furry-rimmed boots. Walking into camp, I raised my eyebrows. Everyone was crowded around a tree with… that must be the dragon, Peleus. There was a smaller group of kids that were clearly uncomfortable, standing just outside the tree, a little anxiously.

As the crowd parted for a second I caught a glimpse of the group and gasped.

_No, no, no… I came here to get away from them!_

Percy came jogging up – I learned his name yesterday, yay for me – and grinned. "Come on Ride! Don't you wanna meet your new campers? They're mutations, so they're technically 'your children.'"

I half snarled at that but nodded tersely. Percy raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on my obviously-unenthusiastic welcome, and led me over to the crowd. "'Scuse me, coming through guys. These new kids are gonna be claimed before they even come in!"

He stopped at the edge of the crowd and pushed me forward a bit. The shape of my face and my tan made me almost unrecognizable, but I was still wary as I announced in the calmest voice possible, "Hi, guys. I'm βόλτα, but you can call me Volt or Ride. Guess I'm your 'godly parent' even though I'm not really related to you." I sighed and looked them over.

Standing in front of me was the flock.


	4. Revenge

**Well. I couldn't think of something to write, so I wrote down all the names of the fanfics I'm working on, closed my eyes, and pointed to a random one. And I chose this one! :D hope u like.**

**Btw, Max is going by Ride now. And no, the flock doesn't see the connection cuz they're too stupid. :P well, they'll figure it out eventually, and don't fret – there'll be a big dramatic reveal scene. But that's not gonna happen for a few more chapters. So stick with it.**

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Ride POV

"Hey," Fang replied carelessly, as though he didn't have a trouble in the world. I wanted to call him so many names that cannot be mentioned here, or at least gather myself into my true form and vaporize all of them, but that would kill all the campers behind me too and Zeus would probably zap me into oblivion.

"You guys are the new campers?" I asked icily, then cursed myself. Acting cold was only going to tip them off to my true identity, and I really didn't want that to happen. Oh, no, I'd wait until they regretted that decision to kick me out so much I'd change my appearance back to Max and give 'em the finger. Probably.

Gazzy eyed me nervously. "So you're our... patron goddess or whatever?"

I nodded. "Is this all of you?" I decided to rub my 'death' in their faces. "Or we're there more of you in this group?"

This obviously hit them hard. How dare they. THEY'RE the ones who kicked ME out. They have NO RIGHT to be depressed about it. I considered changing my appearance back to Max, but didn't - I was going to save _that_ surprise for the perfect moment.

"There was another one of us. But she died," Iggy said tersely.

"I know." I tried to make it sound like I care. "Since I became a goddess it seems I know a lot about where you are, who the other mutations are, all that stuff. Might come in handy if you ever get lost." Then I turned to Percy. "So where are we staying until our cabin gets built?"

He grinned. "You underestimate us. We've got it built already. We were just waiting for you to come along and decide the... flavor of the cabin."

I shrugged and followed him over to the far side of the loop of cabins. The one at the end was in a tree, and did look pretty good if I say so myself. Concentrating, I zapped it and transformed the plain wood into marble and glass, the door into pure gold.

Thunder rumbled across the sky, and I glanced up with an 'innocent' look. "Aww, I'm sorry dad." Then her voice grew to a yell. "It's just gold! NOT celestial bronze! Calm down!"

The flock glanced at me nervously. "Are you sure you should talk to Zeus like that?" Nudge asked with wide eyes. I raised an eyebrow and gestured rather haphazardly at myself. She shut up. _Finally,_ I sighed inwardly. Not for long. "Do you have wings?" the motormouth questioned, suddenly babbling again. This time my sigh was out loud.

"Yes, I have wings," I said irritably, and spread them out wide. The Winged Idiots' jaws gaped and they gasped. _Hey, good nickname. TWI for short. Or wait… the Winged Idiots Trio? Ah, there's more than three of them… oh well. It'll work. So now they're TWIT. Ha._ I broke out of my thoughts to narrow my eyes thoughtfully at the TWITs and then grinned and made my ears and tail appear again. "See, goddess of mutations!" I bragged, but smoothed it over with a bored tone. "Cool stuff. Whatever."

"Can we do that too now?" Gazzy asked excitedly. I was about to go for the withering glare when I remembered I had to play nice.

I let out _another _deep sigh and retorted, "No, only I can do that because I'm a goddess. Sorry." Then I flapped my wings and shot through the narrow hole in the bottom of the cabin. "Coming?" I called back.

Soon all six of us were safely situated in the cabin, and I wandered around zapping things and changing them to my specifications. "Glass roof… white couch… gold pillars? What was I thinking…" I muttered. Changing the pillars to a pure silver, and engraving a detailed pair of wings on the glass with a snap of my fingers, I fell back on the couch and turned on the TV. "Awesome!" I said to myself. "They have Team Fortress 2, specially adapted for TV screens! Guess it comes with a wireless mouse… annnnnddd… YES!" I got to work playing TF2, my favorite first person shooter game. Whistling to myself as I selected sniper, I waved the TWITs over. "Wanna play?"

Fang looked stricken for a moment, then caved in and grabbed another mouse, choosing to be a spy. Pssh. The role suited him. "This was Max's favorite game," he said wistfully, more to the flock than me.

"Max? Oh, right, that girl you kicked out," I said absentmindedly, pretending like I'd used my goddess powers to figure it out, when really I wanted to scream at them that I was _sitting right there_ and they had no right to even _mention my name_ after betraying me. But I bit my tongue and realized with an evil smirk that Fang was on the other team. There were, incidentally, six TV screens, each with their own mouse, so we all settled down and played. Angel was a scout, Nudge was a medic, Iggy was a demoman, and Gazzy was a pyro. All suitable roles. I ended up being on the same team as Gazzy and Nudge, against Iggy, Fang, and Angel. Needless to say, I kicked _all _of their a**es.

Glancing through the glass roof, I noticed that the sun was beginning to set and cursed. "Come on, we'd better get to the campfire for dinner." Hustling the flock out the door, I jumped after them and extended my wings, gliding gently to the ground. Leading the others towards the gigantic purple bonfire, I nodded to Chiron and took a seat at one of the empty picnic tables.

"Welcome, campers!" the centaur boomed. "I'd like to introduce βόλτα, the newest minor god – goddess of mutations." I stood up and waved.

"You can call me Ride," I announced, then sat back down and smiled cruelly, albeit inwardly, at the shocked and pained looks on the fl- sorry, the TWIT's faces. Serves them right.

I couldn't wait for more revenge.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

**Evil Max! :D yay! Or should I say… evil **_**Ride**_**! Oh well. Hope you enjoyed. Now I have to go update my bazillion other fics… *facepalm***

**~DeaththeKidKat**


	5. Flight

**Urm… right… okay! Forgot which fic I was writing for a second. Yes, I'm that pathetic. And yes, I have that many fics to write. *facepalm* I hope somebody's digging a grave for me. I'm going to need it.**

_**rty: **_**wow, thanks for the tip! I'll try and use that idea for… well, hell, why not this fic? ;)**

_**silver and golden moon land: **_**yes… evil Max }:] there will be more. Lots more. :D**

**I think that's all the unsigned reviews. Had to get those taken care of – otherwise I leave them in my inbox because otherwise I forget, and then they're annoying, and then I'm compelled to write the next chapter just so I can clear out my inbox… *slams head into desk* don't worry, I still enjoy writing it! ^.^**

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Ride POV

As I absentmindedly sipped at my pure-golden-colored root beer, I glanced at the flock. They were beyond happy to see an endless supply of food like this. For a moment I felt a pang of regret, then pushed it down with a frown. I couldn't let little memories like scavenging through Dumpsters get in the way of my new life – and revenge. _They kicked you out. There's no way you should still be loyal to __**them.**__You're immortal now – they'll die, and you won't have to. Guess our places are reversed._

I started fiddling with the pure gold bracelets around my wrists, changing them to chains and little charm bracelets and back again. Then I conjured up a pair of fingerless gloves that were white with silver wings embroidered on them. It took me a few seconds to notice that everyone was getting up, bringing their plates over to one of the fires in the eating area and shoveling a small amount of food in it, along with a muttered prayer to their parent. I watched the flock. They all looked at me nervously, then followed suit. Angel dropped in a cluster of grapes, Gazzy a hamburger, Iggy tossed a bun slathered with jelly in, Nudge carefully deposited what was left of her spaghetti, and Fang hesitated before offering up his burrito. Seeing that nearly made me crack again – I absolutely _loved_ bean burritos. And Fang knew that. Well, he knew _Max_ loved burritos. What he didn't know, as he sat down at our picnic table, was that Max was sitting right across from him. No, not Max. I was Ride now.

To my surprise, as the food was burnt, I could smell a delicious aroma drifting past my nose – all the food had transformed into what smelled like cherry, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and raspberry all mixed together. My mouth watered then I shook my head to clear it. That was _their _food I was smelling. Everything told me I should reject it, so I did, ignoring the smell until Chiron called out campfire time. Gods, I wouldn't be able to stand that. So I stood up and walked over to him, explaining something quietly, and when he nodded, I let out a sigh of relief. Dipping my head to the flock, I called, "I'll be back in a few hours." Then I spread my magnificent wings and flapped hard, working harder until I finally broke the sound barrier and a loud _BOOM _announced my sonic boom. Speeding away, I circled Olympus for a few minutes before landing.

"Ride! That's what you're calling yourself, right?" a voice yelled. I turned to see Annabeth waving at me from over by a pavilion, clipboard and a pencil in hand. I jogged over and peered at what she was drawing. Some kind of architecture?

"Yeah, I'm Ride now," I muttered, frowning at the plans as I tried to make sense of them. "Aren't you supposed to be down there right now?"

"Nah, they let me up here so I can keep redesigning Olympus. That was the gods gift to me, after we defeated Kronos."

"I see." I looked around with a sigh. "I think I'll just fly around until the campfire. Or after that. That flock…" I shuddered.

Annabeth gave me a strange look. "How do you know them?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I told you about how my old friends had betrayed me and kicked me out, right? That was them."

Annabeth didn't say anything, for which I was grateful. After a minute of silence, I spread my wings and flew off again, circling around Olympus and breathing in the cool night air. To pass the time, I divebombed the camp, creating sonic booms and streaking across the sky as a flash of gold and white. My clothes unconsciously shifted to pure white short shorts with rainbow hems, and a close-fitting golden shirt that was slightly ruffled on the sides. My shoes turned to rainbow converse, and a golden half-circle of tiny embroidered leaves made out of pure gold appeared in my perfect hair. That's better. I flicked my ears around, then made them disappear along with my tail. Bracelets of white and gold feathers grew around my wrists, actual feathers that made no sound in the slight breeze.

This life was so good. Why did the flock have to come back and ruin everything? No matter. I already knew exactly how I was going to get revenge. It all starts with them going on a quest… but I was going to commit a first, and do the unthinkable. I'd talked with Zeus about it, and he'd reluctantly agreed.

For the first time in history, a goddess was going on a quest.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

**I'd actually written most of this a while ago, but PandaBearSoul kept nagging me to update so I finished the last few paragraphs. This is really short… oh well. Too bad. :P late opening tomorrow, sesame and PandaBear! :D I'll update something in the morning. idk what. Maybe FTB?**

**~DeaththeKidKat**


	6. Poetry

**Guess what? I'm not dead! :D**

**Sorry if many of you began to think so. I know, I'm disgusted with myself too, for leaving this alone for so long. But spring break distracted me and I got next to no time to write **_**anything.**_** I know, it should be the opposite, but that's what Maui will do to you. *shrugs***

**Ah well. If you haven't noticed, I've changed my A/N's slightly ;) now centered! And I figured out how to use the gray line thingy! (sad, I know. Shut up.) so anyways, everyone was nagging me to update this, so I'm working on it… sheesh…**

**Hope u likey! :D**

* * *

><p><span>Narrator POV<span>

"You may have heard, but it's been decided that you will go on a quest," Chiron announced from where he stood in front of the assembled flock. They shifted nervously. "It is indeed a first, but Zeus has decided to allow all six of you to go, instead of the usual three."

Fang raised an eyebrow. "Six?" His voice was strong, but there was the slightest tremble in it that only the flock heard. Well, the flock and one other…

"Yep, me." Ride stepped out from behind a cabin, still in the white short shorts and golden shirt. The small golden circlet gleamed on her forehead. Her wings were half tucked away, and she carried a golden backpack that was clearly stuffed with items. "It's never happened before, a god or goddess going on a quest… in fact, I'm pretty sure most times no gods even _appear _on quests. Sometimes they'll help from afar, sometimes they won't… but you guys get your patron goddess. So be happy."

Ride didn't look anything like _happy._ Gazzy gulped. It reminded him of Max too much.

The rest of the flock smiled nervously, and hefted their own packs, spreading their wings. Ride's eyebrows raised as she glanced over their feathers, plain-colored and rather boring compared to her vibrant gold/white/rainbow wings. They all took off, and it was some time before Nudge thought to ask a rather important question.

"Hey, don't quests usually start with a prophecy?"

Ride sighed. "Oh, right. Give me one second." She took out a piece of paper and a pen, hovering in midair and scribbling something down. Her companions stopped too, and heard her mumble something along the lines of 'I suck at poetry.' Finally she handed the scrap of paper to them, and Nudge read it aloud.

"_Go south to Rhode Island and do something__ dumb_

_Continue on to Arizona because there you'll__ be glum_

_Find something__ important then go to Hollywood_

_And finish up this quest with revenge, if you would."_

All of them frowned. "What kind of a prophecy is that?" Iggy scoffed. Ride shrugged and continued flying. The flock shared some 'wtf?' glances, but followed her. "And what's with the 'revenge' part?" he continued in a lower voice. Fang frowned. Their patron goddess did seem to have something up her sleeve… and he wasn't sure it boded well for him or his companions.

* * *

><p><strong>That short enough for you? XD haha… I really couldn't think of anything else to write. I'm drawing up nothing but blanks right now. My muse is busy having a staring contest with our neighbor's cat… her tail's all fluffed up and I thought it was cute until I surprised her focus from behind and she nearly clawed my arm off. Sheesh.<strong>

**Anyways, I'm gonna go force myself to write some Furry Fury stuff… or more whump… hahahahahaha… o.O**

**~DeaththeKidKat**


	7. Identity

**Okay, first things first. I've started doing this in my other fanfics, and I think I'm going to do it here too. (vote if you want/don't want this change.)**

**With the exception of Strength to See, I've put forth that I will either continue to try and write **_**long **_**chapters, with the exchange of only updating twice or so a month (maybe more), or keeping them short (1,000-3,000 words) and updating every week. Or more. ^^ let me know what you think!**

* * *

><p>"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Iggy grumbled. "Your prophecy said we have to go to Rhode Island. I'm pretty sure we've been heading West."<p>

I glared at him. _I __**sooo**__ want to reveal myself right here and now. But no… I think I'll wait until Arizona… I __did__ say they'd be glum. Yeah. Make them miserable the rest of the quest. Ah, I really can't wait. _"Yeah, well, we're taking the long way. I haven't flown anywhere but around New York for two days."

Fang and Gazzy exchanged a look that I pretended not to see. _I think I'll keep the ears and tail away too. Probably for the whole time. That was a little overkill anyway._ "Fine. Adjusting course… heading Southeast…" I made sure to use the exact same tone I used to use as Max when calling out banking orders. I caught a wince from Nudge and the way Fang twitched a little. _Make them squirm. This is fun. Good thing I changed my voice, even if I'm using the same speech pattern. And with straight platinum blonde hair, and different features and all, I look nothing like Max. Anymore. _It had grown to the point where I no longer felt a pang when dwelling on my old life. My past was behind me now. World, get ready to meet the new and improved Goddess – Ride.

"Okay, we're here!" I yelled as we swooped over the Rhode Island border. "Let's get some lunch."

"What about the quest?" Nudge yelled back.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't you remember? We're here to do something dumb!"

Landing behind a clump of trees, we folded our wings and I changed my straight blonde hair for slightly wavy jet-black. The others gaped. "You can do that?" Nudge gasped. "That's so cool!" I shrugged and we walked out into the town. After finding a small café and sitting down, I surveyed the area as I munched on a Coffee Cake.

"So, what is the ultimate point of this quest anyways?" Gazzy ventured.

"Um… find out a big secret. Get your desserts. Keep me from being bored. That about sum it up?" I felt a strong urge to whack him across the head. They were all a lot more annoying than I remembered them to be. After all, they _had_ kicked me out when I'd done nothing wrong. And mistaken me for someone I really hate. Still, I had my new life now. The flock was nothing but a distraction now. Once they found out and we got back to Camp Half-Blood, I planned to stay away from Long Island Sound for a good long time I liked to call forever. Just as soon as I make them feel as hated and fearful as I did.

This didn't sit well with Fang, it would seem. "Look, I don't know what we did," he spat, "but stop treating us like we're dirt. We've never even _met_ you before. You're supposed to be our sort of surrogate mother, but you're acting like we're nothing but insects."

_Oh, you want an argument? You're on, Mr. Emo. I am the __**Queen**__ of Stubbornness. _I growled. "Sorry. But you kind of remind me of a group of enemies I have, ones I really don't care for. And apologies if I take it out on you. But to be fair, you haven't earned my trust yet. I know all about Max. And it _is _your fault she no longer even **exists**." Okay, maybe that was a little harsh, but they deserved it. Plus, as far as I knew, Max really didn't exist anymore. It was just me, myself, and I. Publically known as Ride.

Fang huffed, but turned back to his sandwich.

Once everyone was done eating, I led them outside and we took off from the clump of trees again, this time heading Southwest. Time for some baking hot weather… Arizona.

I smirked as the sun's rays beat down on my outstretched wings and my once-again-blonde-and-straight hair. _Just you wait, flock._

_Revealing who I used to be is gonna be sweet._

* * *

><p><strong>I love evil Max. ^.^ oops, sorry, Ride! *sweats* don't kill me...<strong>

**remember, vote for whether you want short or long chapters!  
><strong>

_**~DeaththeKidKat**_


	8. Reveal

**Lalala… ^.^ sorry for the delay. I have a dozen half-baked excuses, but you probably don't need to hear those. Among them was a true excuse – I was at the beach and had no Internet! :c don't you feel so bad for me? ;P**

**-3-**

**Anyways… I was actually REALLY EXCITED to write this chapter for once. Whoop-de-doo. *rolls eyes* (PandaBearSoul, I lied. I did not have any introduction or any such thing what so ever. Hehe. So you can disregard the lies I told you on the bus. O.o *le gasp*)**

**WHATEVER… time for ze chapter… don't you agree it's good luck for the reveal chapter to be chapter eight? ;DDDD (HIGH FIVE FOR THE KID FANS!)**

* * *

><p>Wings of a Goddess<br>_Chapter Eight_

* * *

><p>"Seriously, how much longer?" Gazzy complained.<p>

I sighed angrily. "Look, kid, we're in Arizona. I just have to look for… ah yes, there it is. Phoenix. Let's land." I folded my wings slightly and plummeted. It felt amazing, the wind rushing through my hair and feathers. I closed my eyes, and for a few blissful moments, all was forgotten. Nothing existed except the sun on my back, the wind in my face, and the wide-open blue sky. Snapping my eyes open, I spread my wings wide just in time to pull up from my steep dive and land neatly behind a grocery store on the outskirts of Phoenix. The rest of the flock touched down behind me.

"Okay, you're here to be glum," I announced cheerfully. "Act the part."

"What's glum?" Gazzy whispered to Angel.

His sister rolled her eyes. "It means sad, quiet-"

"Miserable, gloomy, depressed, forever repentant," I listed easily. "Well, maybe not the last one. But you get the idea."

"Cheerful, aren't you?" Iggy remarked. I shot him a glare that was, of course, ignored.

We walked through downtown for a while, me just basically leading them in circles. After about twenty minutes Fang got ticked off and demanded I tell them where the _hell_ we were going, to which I replied "I'm trying to find the best dramatic spot." Of course you know what that means. My dramatic genius was lost on the TWITs, however.

After another half an hour of walking, I found a tour bus that went out to the Grand Canyon. **[AN: Okay, look. I've never been to Arizona before (well, I have, but I was two), and I'm too lazy to look up where the Grand Canyon actually is. Deal.] **They let the tourists out to explore the cliffs and we received a schedule of when the next shuttle would be by to pick us up. I winked at the flock - like hell we need a bus!

I decided to 'pose' next to the railing, right above the sheer drop-off. Pssh. Lame. A cliff ain't gonna kill me.

"Soooo..." Nudge suggested, clearly bored. "We're here to find something?"

"Yeah," I replied absentmindedly. "A secret. Kinda important to the rest of the quest."

Iggy sighed. "So tell us!"

I grinned. "Aww, but you can't see me. Well... too bad. Gazzy, mind explaining exactly what you're about to see to him?" Gazzy saluted. "Good. Okay... show time." And I leaped backwards off the cliff.

The flock wasn't that worried, naturally. But what they _did _see... or rather, _who _they did see... did make them gasp and stumble back a little.

See, I dived off the cliff in my platinum-blonde-blue-eyed-beach-tan-Ride disguise.

I came hurtling back up with slightly wavy sun-streaked hair, dark brown eyes, and a rather familiar hoodie...

In other words, as Max.

Looking just like the day I left them.

_Damn, gotta love revenge._

* * *

><p><strong>AHAHAHA! cliffie! *cackles* I like being cruel. You'll have to wait for the flock's reactions. -3-<strong>

**_~DeaththeKidKat~_  
><strong>


	9. Shock

**Has it really been that long since I've updated? According to PandaBearSoul, it has. :P well, I guess I was just letting you guys stew before adding the chapter everyone's been longing to see. hehe ^.^;**

Purple Winged Ninja: _Wow, what an amazing song! XD the new button is mesmerizing. I think I spent fifteen minutes staring at it, slack-jawed, when I first noticed it was there... O_o  
><em>FrenchFrylovesMaximumRide: _Alright, short it is! I know, even though I'm doing short it isn't that fast... well, school is almost over and then updates will be much faster! And thank you for reviewing for those other two chapters, as well! ^.^ encouraging words fuel my fingers.  
><em>sesame2009: _*le gasp* YOU'RE ALIVE! :DDDD Why weren't you at school today, btw? :3 Anyways, yeah. Updates will HOPEFULLY continue faster. -3-  
><em>WatersofStyx9900: _XD You asked for it, here it is.  
><em>Anon: _Yes, I apologize. It was just- so- TEMPTING! XP  
><em>Splatter: _You get your wish! Well, not the 'soon' part, sorry..._ :(

**Alright, back to teh chapter. ^.^ don't kill me! Oh, and PandaBearSoul (and stonekangaroo-whatever-number) you'll probably get first dibs on reading the rough draft of chapter 10 because I'll try writing some of it in my free time at Kiwanilong... *happy dance***

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>"Max?" Gazzy yelped.<p>

"You're-what-how-when-notdead?" Nudge spluttered, looking on the verge of tears.

Iggy whipped around, glancing up and down frantically. "Wait, _what?_ Max? I thought she- **what?**"

Fang's mouth was hanging open slightly, Gazzy was making himself dizzy as his eyes flicked from me, to Fang, to Iggy, to Angel, to me, to Fang, to me, to Fang, to me... and Angel nearly dropped Total (who was hyperventilating. Interesting. Didn't know dogs could do that).

I just smirked, my regular old Max smirk, and flipped them the birdy. "Yup. And guess who I have to thank for being my awesome goddessly self? _You._ So actually I should thank you. Before I embark on my nice quest for revenge."

"Why would you thank us?" Fang asked slowly.

"He." I narrowed my eyes. "You're duller than I remember. _You _kicked me out, if memory serves. Thanks to that I flew away, crashed into a nice big helluva floating mountain, and got Zeus to make me the Goddess of Mutations."

Gazzy shook his head like a dog shakes off water. "I'm... confused - what? Why are you helping us on our quest then?"

"Oh, I'm not helping you," I informed him cheerfully. "I'm here for a different reason. But that's my business, not yours. Besides... it was amusing watching you get all mad at me for leading you on a random goose chase then falling off a cliff and popping up again as, uh, my old self. You should have seen your faces." In fact, the look on their faces after me saying that made me want to crack up all over again. Crap. _Keep it cool, Ride._

Angel actually had the _gall _to _sniffle. _"Then why hide yourself?"

My expression soured. "Because I'm not hiding. I was merely keeping the past from you. And you all deserved it."

"But, Max-"

"It's not _Max! _Anymore!" I snarled. "My name is _Ride. _The 'Max' you used to know died the minute you turned your backs on her. She doesn't exist. See? I wasn't lying when I talked all plainly about 'Oh right, that Max girl? Yeah, she doesn't exist anymore.' Because she _doesn't._ Got it?"

Iggy tentatively put one finger on my arm, and I let him, just to shock him more. "... M- Ride? But..."

I shook him off, irritated. This wasn't as fun as I thought. "Just go eat lunch. I'll join you in a minute. There, the Rising Sun Cafe. Eat. We leave in an hour." _To Hollywood._

_Time to finish this up with a bang._

**[I was so tempted to leave it here. But because I'm nice (and because that would make it super short)... :P]**

They left, and I sat alone on the cliff, dangling my feet over the edge. I furiously swapped out my disgusting dirty blonde waves for longer, straighter chestnut brown locks and those gods-awful dull brown eyes (unbarfed chocolate? Seriously?) for a sparkling dark green. Much better. I sat back with a sigh, gazing out across the Grand Canyon mournfully. Deciding I should probably go 'eat lunch' with the flock, I did something I'd had little practice in as of yet - splitting myself into multiple forms. I'd been told about this a little, like how Dionysus could appear wherever there was a party. Well, I could appear wherever there were mutants. Fancy a trip to the School, anybody?

Anyway, I tactfully (not) made myself look like Max again, then walked into the Rising Sun Cafe while my other form remained sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Gazzy and Nudge both jumped the minute they saw me enter, and I barely spared them a glance before ordering a caramel apple cider, cold, then sat down at their table with a raised eyebrow. Total looked ready to hyperventilate again and I rolled my eyes. After five minutes of dead silence,

"What's so important in Hollywood?"

Fang's icy voice interrupted my thoughts, which were settled on the scenery back out on that cliff, and I sighed reluctantly. Cracking one eye open (I'd closed them to better enjoy the view for both forms), I answered coldly, "You do realize there was next to no point for this quest, right? The only reason I scribbled down that awful poem was so you'd stop badgering me about where we were going."

He snorted derisively. Oh, yeah. I remember all about those derisive snorts. "So? Then why are we still here? We might as well just go back to camp."

"Not that simple." I stretched my arms over my head then took a sip of my cider. Blech. I pulled a flask of nectar out of nowhere (handy, these god powers) and poured some in. Tasting it again, I hummed happily when the flavor improved drastically, as well as giving me a little warm thrill of energy. It only added to the rolling, endless ocean of power inside me. Handy indeed. "Zeus wanted me to pick something up there, then deliver it to Artemis, who should be in the foothills near the city. We'll see."

The rest of the meal was eaten in glum silence. I almost giggled at my word, the one in the 'prophecy,' but that would be undignified so I bit my tongue.

_On the cliff, I sighed and stood up. This was getting boring. Pitching forward, I let myself free-fall, before soaring up on golden wings. Easy peasy._ Hmm... let's give the flock a shock. _I divebombed the town, completely invisible to the mortals. Lighting down in front of the Rising Sun Cafe, I changed my looks back into the straight-plantinum-blonde-blue-eyed Ride, and entered._

"Hey sista," the Ride me called out. I winked.

"Sup."

"Nothing. Bored." Platinum Blonde Ride yawned, and Max Version Ride offered her the empty seat next to her.

The flock's jaws were hanging open.

"Doppelgänger anybody?" Max Version Me asked brightly.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry if that end bit was confusing. -3- from now on...<strong>

The Ride that is with the flock will be in normal text.

_Any other Ride will be in italics._

**And if for some reason I add a third form, it will be in bold.**_  
><em>

**Got it? ^.^**

**_~DeaththeKidKat~_  
><strong>


	10. Order

**Hi all. Me again ;P Guess what? I'm not dead! And it's summer! Which means... MORE UPDATES! Hopefully. My fingers are rubbed raw from hours of rock climbing for the past two days... Just one more day and then I can take my belay test and then ROCK CLIMB WHENEVER I WANT! AHAHAHA~!**

**Oh, and my screen name changed. Did you notice? :P I'm 'DarkKittehKat' now. 'DeaththeKidKat' was too fandom specific for me. OH. And I'm going to draw a cover for this: Any ideas?  
><strong>

FrenchFrylovesMaximumRide: Apologies. It was probably confusing for everybody -3- Basically, I remembered the part in TLO where Dionysus is talking to Percy about how he can materialize wherever there's a party. Well, I decided Max can now do that too, except only where there are mutants/hybrids/kids like herself and the flock. So basically she had two forms at the moment and both appeared in front of the flock, talking about whatnot. 'Platinum Blonde Ride' was the form that looked like she was at Camp HB, disguising who she used to be, and 'Max Version Me' was her form looking like Max used to. Obviously shocking the sh*t out of the flock. :D Any questions?  
><span>LoverGirl523:<span> Why thank you! I am!  
><span>allyson:<span> Yesh I can. E. P. I. C.  
><span>Witch<span>girl: Thanks!  
><span>Maddiepattie:<span> Now that it's summer break, I should be able to more often. :D  
><span>Anon:<span> Eh, I don't _think_ we're related... but that would be freaking awesome if we were. ;D Sorry about the wait time. Sometimes I take forever just working out the kinks in whatever plot line I'm working on. And posting more stories which SHALL BE THE DEATH OF ME...  
><span>Reflections of Twilight:<span> Thank you, and I will!  
><span>readingisdabest:<span> ;) Of course. Did you expect anything less?  
><span>ChopSuzi:<span> Don't we all? XD  
><span>WingedNinja28:<span> I'm starting to love your reviews more and more. They make me lmao so hard. XDDD YES, YOUR MATH IS CORRECT! AND I SHALL ADD AN EQUATION LIKE THIS: Me(not dead) + summer break = MORE UPDATES!

PandaBearSoul: Since you did not review, consider yourself special. Two words: DAMN YOU. THERE'S NOBODY LEFT TO GO TO STARBUCKS WITH ME! Well, technically there's sesame, but her stepdad never lets her go unless- well, you get it. No offense sesame ^.^; but COME BACK FROM ITALY ALREADY! HOW LONG ARE YOU GONNA BE THERE ANYWAY?

**I must say... SIXTY-TWO REVIEWS? OMG YOU GUYS YOU'RE AMAZING! 62 for one story for this measly excuse of an author! *is shocked out of pants* Hugs to you all, who reviewed. And those who haven't reviewed... I will sic my rabid purple shawarma giraffes on you until you do. O_o jk. I'm just glad you guys read this! I also wanna say thanks, because there were many times where I stewed over this story and considered deleting it. But you guys always managed to bring a laugh from my lips and a frantic meow out of my cat every time I accidentally squashed her by laughing so hard. :D This story wouldn't be here without you-**

**Screw it. Sappy stuff isn't my thing. LET'S GET ON WITH THE DAMN STORY, EH?**

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>"Well this took a turn for the weird," Fang commented dryly, continuing to eat his waffle.<p>

I stuck my tongue out at him. Well, both of us/me/whatever did. _Ugh, this is complicating._ With a small poof the Max Version of me disappeared and my preferred Ride form sat down in her place. "Jeez. Is he always this grumpy?"***1***

Fang narrowed his eyes. "Are you always this sarcastic?"

"You know the old me," I shot back. "Wasn't I always?"

Once again, I found (to my annoyance) that Gazzy and Nudge's eyes were flicking back and forth between us like we were batting a ball in a tennis match. "Will you stop that?" I snapped. "Jesus. Let's get the damn quest over so I can go sleep on a cloud or something." Yawning, I finished up my waffle and stood up. "We're leaving in five minutes. I'll be outside by the fountain if ya need me. And I _will_ leave without you, if you're not ready." With that I walked out.

**Angel POV**

"Okay, we've got five minutes," Nudge whispered, disguising her words by munching on a french fry. "What do we do?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but Max certainly isn't _my_ mother," Iggy grumbled.

Fang snorted. "This whole demigods thing is stupid anyways. The Camp is nice, but for future reference - stay. Away. From. Ride. She clearly hates our guts, and that's dangerous. A god on our bad side? We've gotta be careful."

I sighed sorrowfully. "I can't even read her mind. It's closed off from me. Maybe because she's a god?" None of my team answered, they were all caught up for a moment in memories. "Well, we're down to three minutes, so we better go." Pushing my plate away, I stood up and skipped out, the others following more slowly.

Ride was sitting on top of the water fountain, glaring down at us through one narrowed eye. "About time." Spreading her wings, she took off. "The Mist will hide me. It ain't gonna hide you, so I suggest you find a bush." With that she flew higher, circling like a raptor impatiently.

"Fine," I mumbled, more to myself than anything. Scurrying behind a bush, with the rest of the flock close behind, I spread my white wings and flapped hard, soaring into a kind-of formation behind Ride. "Are we going to Hollywood now?" I called.

She just glared at me. "No shit, Sherlock."

I _definitely _didn't like this new Max.

**Ride POV**

_Damn kids. Can't believe I'm gonna be stuck with them another few days until this damn quest is over._

Gliding over the generous thermals provided by the desert, I pondered my thoughts in silence while the flock flew in a V on either side of me. I could tell that they'd slowly started to inch back, form a V without me with Fang at their head. Not like I cared. _Oh, let's see. Should I give a damn...? Nope, damn not given._

Snorting out through my nose, I spared a glance. Yep. Sure enough, there was a new V flying behind me: Fang at point, Angel and Iggy to his left, Nudge and Gazzy to his right. For the first time it struck me, and I dropped back so I was flying next to Fang. Nudge wisely sheered off a little to make room for my wide wingspan.

"Where's Total?" I asked Mr. Emo.

He narrowed his eyes and didn't look at me. "Camp."

"Ah. Leaving the slow and weak behind." I smirked. "Starting to think like a leader. Finally."

Folding my wings, I dropped a few dozen feet, then snapped them open to catch a good thermal and rose high, higher than the flock. The sun felt so good on my golden feathers. I even closed my eyes for a moment.

We continued like this for another good half an hour - me at a higher altitude, them down below (most likely sulking). I for one was quite happy with our arrangement.

Until, naturally, Zeus pulled my consciousness (or part of it) back to Olympus.

_"Ride!" he boomed, sitting at the head of the U-shaped table. "Let us talk."_

_I bowed respectfully, then straightened and grew to my twenty-foot height so I wasn't an ant under his boot. Sandal. Whatever. Wait, was I wearing a toga? For the love of- never mind. "Yes, Lord Zeus?"  
><em>

_"You've been quite... ah, annoyed with your demigod wards as of late. Under the-" his lip twitched in a grimace "-  
><em>pact_ we made with Jackson, the gods agreed to show more love towards their children. I know that you are new, but this is no excuse. However, seeing your past, and as I disagree with Jackson to some extent, I am allowing you clemency. This has no effect on our pact; even though we swore on the River Styx, you are quite the exception to everything lately. However I do want you to be _slightly_ more forgiving on them. Is that clear?"_

_Sighing, I nodded and said, "Yes, my Lord." And with that I allowed myself to return to my original form.  
><em>

"Damn," I gasped, surfacing and shaking my head. I'd kept flying in a level fashion, but it seemed I had dropped about forty feet when my consciousness was pulled back. "I hate it when he does that."

The flock was eyeing me quizzically, but I ignored them. Aw, shit. Did I really have to be nicer to them now? At least I wasn't wearing a toga anymore. Breathing out through my nose in irritation, I closed my eyes again and relaxed.

Yeah, bad idea.

'Cuz _naturally,_ the griffins chose that moment to attack.

* * *

><p><strong>Ehehehe... cliffie! I'm so evil. And awesome. And evil. And did I mention evil? But yeah... sorry. Too tempting. You should be glad though. Originally I was going to put the 'Yeah, bad idea' part right after 'the sun felt so good on my golden feathers... I closed my eyes etc,' but I'm feeling nice today so I threw in the part with Zeus. That was damn short though, too, huh? Ah well. It's a chapter ;P<strong>

*1* Kanda comes to mind... XD

**Off to more rock climbing... GAH.  
><strong>

**-Kat-  
><strong>


	11. Clash

**I'm not dead! Hi~**

**Aaaaanyways. Here is teh next chappie. :3 Shout out to Metal Flowers for being... Uh... Random. XD and awesome.**

readingisdabest: Hehe, yeah. I love evil~ Also, I tend to use my iPad, so it doesn't seem as short to me...  
><span>Fang Ride 323:<span> She's awesome. And evil-ish. :D Not really, she just hates the flock.  
><span>percybeth96:<span> As you wish... XD  
><span>ChopSuzi:<span> Yes. Griffins of DEATH. O_o  
><span>SpiritWolf14:<span> Yeah, sorry, but I'm evil like that with cliffhangers. c: Glad you likey, and I am also a daughter of Poseidon so YOUR ARGUMENT IS VOID. ;P  
><span>Courtney DiLaurentis:<span> Hehe... ^.^; Sorry. I don't often find time for writing longer chapters, the only fic I seem to make an exception for is the Slumber of Ghosts. /: I'll try and update more often, but the chaptersstill probably stay short.  
><span>Metal Flowers:<span> You got a shout-out! *dances* Thank you for an awesome review. You receive a thousand brownie points for that.  
><span>PandaBearSoul:<span> Oh, shut up. You didn't even review chapter 9.  
><span>Witchgirl:<span> That... is an epic idea. O_o Sorry though, maybe another time~ T^T

**Ooookay~, time for some griffins of DEATH! *cackles***

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>"Shit," I cursed, ducking as a griffin claw soared right over my head. "Damn creatures. Shouldn't I be able to command them to-" My sentence was cut off as I twirled nimbly away from an attempt to slice my wings off. "Okay. Scratch that. Time to be eliminated, baby!" Cackling in a slightly-insane way, I withdrew a chunk of Celestial Bronze from my pack. I think Hermes had charmed it so it could hold an infinite number of things. Huh. Anyways, I basically pulled out a big honking footlong piece of dully gleaming metal.<p>

"What the hell are you gonna do with that?" Fang yelled, dodging a lash from a griffin. "Club 'em to death?"

I rolled my eyes. "You'll see!" I shouted back, doing a neat backflip in midair to avoid being cut into ribbons. There were, all in all, four griffins, which I could easily handle. I knew, however, that the flock had to do this on their own. I may be able to accompany them, but I was not allowed to help. (Unless they were dying. And even then... well, there was my promise to Zeus. Crap.)

Concentrating, I narrowed my eyes at the hunk of metal, letting part of my consciousness go on autopilot so I wouldn't have to tumble out of the sky and heal in the middle of the desert. I imagined the Celestial Bronze melting, reforming into weapons that could be handled.

A slim Japanese katana, blade shining bronze, the hilt plain with a ribbon literally made out of metal wrapped just under the guard.

A pair of small knives, easy to handle with smaller hands, the blades also bronze.

A bow, capped with sharp Celestial Bronze spikes, complete with a quiver of bronze-tipped arrows.

A two-foot-long silver pole, with curved bronze blades jutting out near the head like a two-sided scythe, but smaller.

A pair of curved, crescent-shaped bronze blades, looking like the letter D with the straight line being silver handles.

Smirking in satisfaction at my work, I carefully created sheaths for the sword, knives, pole, and blades, and stuck the bow in its quiver. Apparently I could summon raw materials from a certain place on Olympus that was created for just this very reason. That's where the silver of the handles and sheaths, metal for some parts, wood for the bow and quiver, and the other materials for the weapons had come from. Although we couldn't, apparently, summon Celestial Bronze, hence why I had to carry it around.

My work done (this had passed in about fifteen seconds), I tossed the katana to Fang***1***, the knives to Angel, the bow to Nudge, the pole to Gazzy, and the crescent blades to Iggy. Well, I warned Iggy. The others I figured could handle it.

"Woah," Gazzy breathed, twirling his pole around and whacking a griffin in the chest. It yelped and soared away, a gash in its feathers dripping strange monster blood. "This is so cool!"

Fang just set his jaw stubbornly and drew the sword, hacking at the wing of Gazzy's griffin effortlessly. Nudge gaped at the quiver in her hands for a second, then slung it over her back and after a moment figured out how to mount the arrow. Shooting a little nervously, she managed to actually lodge it in the wing of the now-limping-through-the-air griffin that both Gazzy and Fang had attacked, knocking it out of the sky. About a hundred feet down it exploded in a puff of sand and was distributed through the air, scattered on the winds.

Angel smiled and whipped out her knives after strapping the sheaths to her forearms, flying in towards another griffin and sticking one of the blades in its scruff. Iggy joined in, guided by her calls, and slashed a few wounds in its legs and one wing. It fell out of the sky like its companion, disintegrating into dust when Nudge shot it, now more sure of her abilities, square in the chest.

I had drifted above the fighting, smiling in satisfaction that my weapons worked. Okay, maybe I was a _little_ proud of them. But that did _not_ mean I forgave them. Not at all.

After roughly seven minutes of fighting, all the griffins were just piles of sand borne on the desert wind, and all the weapons were sheathed. "Well, you didn't die!" I informed them cheerfully. "And you hacked a bunch of griffins to pieces in your first fight! Fun times."

"First fight? We've fought plenty before," Fang scoffed.

"I know, I was there," I shot back. "But I meant with Celestial Bronze weapons. You'll want to keep those close. Only Celestial Bronze works against monsters. Oh, and Stygian-whatever, but that's for Hades and his kids to use. You guys stick to these."

"So... um, where are we exactly?" Angel questioned, looking around. "I lost track after the griffins attacked."

I hummed and closed my eyes, searching my inner map/compass/thing. Gods have cool stuff like that. "I think we're... somewhere over Utah. We've been flying a while. Damn, I guess we overshot it." Putting a hand over my eyes to shield them, I glanced down at the desert then west. "I guess we're heading west instead. Might take another day of flying, then we'll rest somewhere around Las Vegas and make it to Hollywood tomorrow afternoon."

"We get to stay in Las Vegas?" Gazzy cheered. "YES! Angel, I bet you could win us a boatload of money!"

I rolled my eyes, but I was snorting in amusement. "We don't need money. I can conjure up anything we'd need in terms of mortal cash. Drachmas are a little trickier, but I bet if I asked Zeus for the trick I could do it."

"But the satisfaction..." the blonde whined. I sighed.

_So much for trying to be nicer. If they stay this annoying constantly, I'm afraid I might be a little tempted to attack them myself..._

"That reminds me," I thought aloud. "I wanted to ask Zeus why I couldn't control those griffins. They're mutants - half lion, half eagle. I should be able to... Hmm. I'll try and contact him when we get to 'Vegas."

Several long hours of flying later, we were soaring over the still-dusty landscape of Nevada. In the distance I spotted the huge sprawling map of lights - Las Vegas. Hell yeah.

We flapped hard another fifteen minutes, then landed on top of a large casino building that was at least ten stories high***2***. I whistled. "Should be called the City of Lights. I feel like I'm being blinded."

"Is it that bad?" Iggy asked.

Gazzy laughed. "Woot! Yeah, it's bright, but it's _awesome!_ Can we go gambling? Please please please?"

"Hell no," I snorted. "They'd never let you past the front doors."

"Hmph," he pouted.

"Let's get food though," I commented, looking around for a slightly more kid-friendly restaurant. "I brought nectar and ambrosia for me, but you guys need to eat to be able to fly all the way to California tomorrow. Whaddaya feel like eating?"

"Chinese!" Gazzy yelled.

At the same time, Nudge started blabbering about Indian cuisine, Angel suggested Mexican, and Iggy mused over the fact that he'd never had Pad Thai before. I rubbed my head in annoyance. "Come to a decision, for Zeus' sake. Chinese, Indian, or Mexican?"

Eventually they settled for Chinese, albeit with some heated complaints and whining from Nudge. (It stopped when I changed my face briefly into that of a dragonfly. Trust me, bug eyes in human size are _not_ pretty. I might have overdid it a tiny bit... nah, throwing up is good for 'ya. Gives you room for the next meal.) I located a Panda Express that took up half a block - nobody in Vegas did things by halves, let me tell you - and we settled down at a table. Sure enough, with barely any concentration, I was able to reach into my backpack and conjure up a wad of hundred-dollar bills. Deciding it looked a _little_ suspicious, I elected to narrow it down when we payed.

At first the flock was worried that their abnormal order size was going to surprise the waitress, but I just scoffed and said; "This is Vegas, guys. A, they'll probably think you're ordering for a party. B, I can just confuse her with the Mist if I have to."

So they ate in silence. I manipulated the Mist into making my plate of ambrosia squares and large glass of nectar was a orange chicken and rice combo meal, and the others scarfed down on their assorted huge piles of rice, chicken, noodles, and soba (in Fang's case***3***).

"Thanks, bye!" I called to the lady at the front door as we exited and quickly found an empty alley to spread our wings and take off. We ended up settling on top of the same casino building, and I created a barrier of Mist to both hide us and keep the mortals away. "Promise I won't kill you in your sleep," I vowed amusedly to the flock, sitting on the edge of the building and smirking out at the night sky.

They exchanged wary glances, but fell asleep almost immediately. I cursed myself and punched the side of my head. Damn, I had to stop thinking of them protectively. They were not my children and never would be. Opening a link to Zeus, I closed my eyes and let my awareness drift.

_"Lord Zeus,"__ I greeted respectfully, standing off to the side of the U of thrones, up on Olympus._

_He waved a hand at me, paying attention but still focused on doing... something to his master lightning bolt. "Go ahead, Ride."  
><em>

_Sighing, I sat on the edge of a step (we were both human size), much like I was in Vegas in my other form. "We were attacked by griffins earlier. I'm sure you noticed, we were pretty high up. The thing was... they were mutants, right? Lion and eagle. But I couldn't control them. I've actually tried it before, on my second day here Poseidon was showing me around some beach and I saw a hippocampi - those half fish, half horse, I think, creatures, and it obeyed my will almost as well as his. Yet these griffins were shrouded from me somehow. It was like I was blocked off from them."  
><em>

_"This is distressing indeed," he mused gravely, pausing in his work to scratch his beard. "I'll look into it, Ride. In the meantime - I hope to see you hold up your end of the bargain."  
><em>

_"Yes, sir," I nodded, then severed our connection.  
><em>

Shaking my head as I surfaced again. Well, damn. No info that was useful to me. Sighing, I gazed up at the moon, and pondered what could have cut me off from the griffins. Gods don't need to sleep, but for the sake of appearances, I let myself doze off. In reality I was soaring through the clouds in a different form. I suppose this could be interpreted as a dream, except for the fact that I was technically split in two and my other half was somewhere over Portland Oregon. It was an unusually clear night there.

So I 'slept,' and allowed myself to relax for a precious few hours.

Gods know I certainly needed it.

* * *

><p><strong>Guess what? I didn't leave a cliffhanger~! O_O Shocking, I know.<strong>

**Nudge: *wail* You made me throw up?  
><strong>

**Ride: Quit your whining. You deserved it.  
><strong>

***ominous thunder*  
><strong>

**Ride: *grumbling* Sorry, Your Lordship.  
><strong>

**Me: Fun times.  
><strong>

**Ride: Shut up.  
><strong>

*1* Kanda~  
>*2* Never been to Las Vegas, so I don't know what the buildings are like -.-'<br>*3* Kanda again~

**Anyways, see ya~! :D  
><strong>

**-Kat-  
><strong>


	12. Concern

**I must say, I got a pretty good response to the last chapter. XD It seems I've been focusing on three fanfics as of right now- no, four: 100 OneShots: Death the Kid, The Slumber of Ghosts, The Wings of a Goddess, and Maka in Wonderland. I'm a bit hung up on Soul Eater, eh? :3 Well, PandaBearSoul was blabbering again over email so I decided I'd get her to shut up by posting the next chappie. -3-**

readingisdabest: Yeah, well, she's a god now. ;) You'll see more awesome and strange powers later on. As of right now, the PJO characters have kinda disappeared (excluding Zeus), but they're coming back later in the story. :D  
><span>death can be graceful:<span> Thank you!  
><span>Metal Flowers:<span> XD Glad you liked it. ;) And actually, there is some mystical reason I'm not revealing as of yet, but a certain author _did_ want to put a fight scene in... I'll admit to that... *innocent whistling* Just kidding, I can't whistle.  
><span>PandaBearSoul:<span> *stares at review for an hour straight* You. Would kill. _Me?_ *laughter explosion* Are? You? F***ing? Kidding? ME? Now _that's_ a laugh. I would _love_ to see you try. And the 'someone' in KACSO would be _you._  
><span>SpiritWolf14:<span> Actually, no. Fighting will come a little bit later. *cackles*  
><span>TheGirlWithTheTealStreaks:<span> Awesome. ;D I wish I could get my hair dyed, but my mom says I have to wait until I move out of the house... *pouts* :P Glad you liked it, and wouldn't it be 'stay teal?' XD

**Well, enjoy teh chappie! ;3**

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>I heard one of the flock stirring and sat up from where I'd 'fallen asleep' leaning against the small block on top of the edge of the casino building. Blinking to clear my eyes, I twisted to see who had returned from the land of sleep.<p>

Of course. It just had to be Fang.

"You awake?" he asked quietly, sitting on the wall opposite me.

I 'hmphed' and replied, "I never slept."

"That's some way of keeping guard."

"My senses are much better than yours, and my eyes were merely closed. 'Relaxing' is not the same as 'sleeping.'"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I just want the flock to be safe."

"And I just want to get this over with," I shot back.

We remained that way, glaring each other down, for about fifteen minutes. The sun had started to rise, streaking the sky with pink and gold. I turned my head to watch it come up. "Apollo must be in a good mood today," I muttered to no one in particular.

Fang raised an eyebrow. "About that. I still don't get all of these 'gods and goddesses' thing. Care to explain?"

I sighed, a long-suffering sigh. "Fine." Conjuring a piece of chalk in my hand, I leaned down to the concrete of the rooftop and began to draw a quick sketch of a hill with a face in it and the sky above with stars shaping another face. "It began with Gaia, the Earth, and her husband Ouranous, the sky. Together they had children - the Titans." I drew a small group of giant figures to the left of Gaia (the hill). "Kronos was... the eldest Titan, I guess. The Titan of Time. Gaia here is a tricky little- you know. She whispered in Kronos' ear, whispers of power and strength and all that crap. She gave him a scythe and with it he snuck up on Ouranous - don't ask me how, I don't know - and sliced him into tiny pieces. I think."

"Why did Gaia want her husband dead?" Fang asked.

"I don't know. She's The Evil Villain, basically. Anyways, Gaia fell into a deep sleep and Kronos took over. He had kids too- the Gods. His first three sons were Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. I think he ate them or something, well, Poseidon and Hades, leaving just Zeus left. He ended up slicing Kronos into pieces, freeing his brothers. Then they drew out of a bag - Zeus got the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the Underworld. The end. Happy stuff. _Boring."_

Fang rolled his eyes. "I don't know why I bother," he muttered.

I glared at him. "You wanted to know, buddy. I just complied."

He opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by a sleepy call from Gazzy.

"Ma- Fang?"

"Oh great," I groaned. "And on top of everything, that name again."

"What? Max?" Fang scoffed.

"You know damn well."

Our conversation ended there. The rest of the flock rose slowly, sleepily strapping on their weapons and sifting through a newspaper Nudge had scavenged to see what there was to eat nearby. "Maybe we could check out the Dumpsters for this place?" Gazzy mused, pointing to an advertisement somewhere on the back pages.

I cleared my throat pointedly. "Um, excuse me?" I waved the wad of dollar bills around. "There's an I-Hop over on Sands Avenue. We'll get pancakes." Spreading my wings, I dived off the roof and soared over to the big blue sign, landing on top and surveying the area. Seeing the flock circling uncertainly overhead, I extended my thoughts to Angel and let her see a single message: _'Come down. I'm using the Mist to disguise us.'_ Slowly, I saw the message being passed, and then they dropped down to land beside me. "You know, I could teach you how to manipulate the Mist," I commented off-handedly. "Might come in handy on a mission where you don't have me."

"Really?" Gazzy asked excitedly.

"That's so cool!" Nudge babbled. "So could you make us look different too? I wanna look like a model. You know, tall, and can- ooh, I want a gold streak in my hair! And one of those ruffled tops you see in Aeropostale, you know the one? Oh, and can I-"

"I got it!" I interrupted, rubbing my temples in exasperation.

So we descended on the I-Hop. Using the Mist a tiny bit to confuse her, I got the waitress to believe that six orders of ten plate-sized pancakes was perfectly normal. I realized that with a little bit of nectar dribbled on top like syrup, and some ambrosia chunks for flavor, pancakes were tasty even to me.

"These are so yummy~!" Gazzy was almost drooling as he quickly devoured his sixth pancake, loaded with strawberries and almost a gallon of maple syrup. "Can we get more?"

"Unfortunately, no," I muttered through my mouthful of pancake. "We have to get on the move. I have a feeling whatever was blocking me from the griffins might be in Hollywood..."

"Aww..." chorused Gazzy, Angel, Nudge, and Iggy in unison. I nearly slammed my head against the table with a groan.

We ended up eating another round of pancakes, then taking off with nice full bellies for once. Just in case, I passed small bundles of a hundred dollars each to the flock members, so if we got separated they wouldn't starve or something. I found that obeying Zeus' order to be nicer was getting very annoying.

Just for fun, I started changing my hair and clothes as we flew. Skirt, toga, short shorts, khakis, ruffled top, sundress, hoodie, jeans, toga again, back to ruffled top, etc. Nudge was whining enviously, asking if I could change her clothes too. I admitted I could, but this only ramped up her babbling until I gave in and changed her shirt into the ruffled top she'd been going on about earlier. The Aeropostale one. Dear gods, it was irritating to no end.

After half an hour of amusedly changing my clothes, I settled on the white and rainbow short shorts, rainbow converse, gold top and russet-streaked blonde hair that I'd worn when we'd originally set out on our mission. Over time, the desert gave way to grassy hills, then more desert, then amazing thermals over Death Valley, and finally some more green. By the time we'd reached Hollywood my eyes were aching.

"Woah, look!" Nudge gasped. "I can see the Starwalk of Fame thingy! Ooh, and a rock concert over there! And Disney studios! Can we go, please please please?"

"No," I replied grumpily. "I'm searching for a power source. Don't interrupt or I'll change _your_ head into a dragonfly." That shut her up fast.

Eventually, with some concentration, I found a small thread of power pulsating from somewhere in the hills. Following it in strange loops and circles that no doubt looked like drunk flying to the flock, I narrowed it down to one spot and landed.

The flock looked up at the large white landmark in awe, while I smirked.

The Hollywood sign. Perfect.

* * *

><p><strong>Agh, sorry if that was terrible... I'm a little out of it today. -3- I think I'm going rock climbing though, so yay! :D<br>**

**Oh, and if you didn't notice, this has a cover now! :DDD it's also on deviantART if you want to see it up close. c;  
><strong>

**-Kat  
><strong>


	13. Night

**JULY FOURTH WAS SO FUN! *sings happily* I was out on the boat (my dad's speed/motor/whateverboat) all morning, but now I'm freee~ and am begrudgingly writing this update for all my lovely readers. c:**

Reflections of Twilight: Thankies!  
><span>Courtney DiLaurentis:<span> Why, thank you muchness!  
><span>readingisdabest:<span> Is it? Wow, I don't remember that... I based the location off of a WoWP episode, actually. XDDD And Max will now commence to kill you because she wishes to be called RIDE. ;P  
><span>PandaBearSoul:<span> Shut up. I've only gone to see her twice. :P And actually, killing you is too fast... I should torture you first.  
><span>Fang Ride 323:<span> Then I guess I should be happy you took the precious time to review. ;) Thank you!  
><span>Metal Flowers:<span> Oh, it's not that she's not allowed to try, it's that she can't. She physically cannot kill me. ;P For reasons... One of them being I am a ninja. And don't fret, there shall be lots more fighting and joyful plot twists coming up! Truth be told when I wrote this I had no idea what I was doing, I just wanted to write one of these like so many others have and FINISH THE FREAKING THING. :D I will stay true to my word, promise! Although I cannot vouch for this lasting longer than September... it may draw to a close sometime 'round August 26th (I'm leaving for Germany) or maybe it'll last longer. Who knows? I'll try.  
><span>Anonymous:<span> Yes, the review system is quite cool... The only problem is I can't tell you anonymous reviewers apart now. O_o;  
><span>ThatGirlWithTheTealStreaks:<span> Adding on to what I just said above, I can only tell you apart when you say 'Blah blah blah talking here' or whatever. Thank you, by the way. And I have no idea what half of those things are because I was raised in German-fricken-private school. ^3^  
><span>Silent Phantom gal:<span> Thank chu much!  
><span>ChopSuzi:<span> Yes, well, Ride found it funny. And so do I. That was actually based off of a book in the Animorphs series... have you read it?  
><span>Jimmy 10.0:<span> =3= Hmph. Dash is the BEST EVER, how can I not base something off of her? Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake! :D

**Holy frijoles. 88 REVIEWS! *glomps every person that has ever reviewed* YOU HAVE MADE MY DAY! MY LIFE IS NOW SYMMETRICAL! :DDDD**

**Right. Now we're gonna start bringing the PJO characters back in. ;D You didn't think I'd leave them out forever, did you? c: Also, I apologize if the plot seems a little loopy and random at the moment, there's not really a definite direction I want it to go... fear not, there are some twists and turns coming up, and it should straighten out a little. Then get delightfully twisted up again. ;D  
><strong>

**I also have a question. I have an idea for a Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic, if any of you awesome readers know what the hell that is, PM me so I can run the idea by a few of you... I'm a little hesitant to go through with it, so any and all opinions would help. Thank you!  
><strong>

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>"Um... now what?" Nudge questioned, peering around the sign. I smirked and leaned back nonchalantly against the H.<p>

"We wait. I've got some tagalongs coming in."

"Cookies?" Gazzy asked excitedly.

I rolled my eyes. "Tag. A. Longs. As in people that tag along, Sherlock." He pouted, but clearly had gotten used to my temper. Damn.

We waited for about fifteen minutes, during which I was compelled to transform rocks into flies, people's hair into spiky bloodred afros and all manner of crazy hairdos, asked to change the Hollywood sign into saying Bite Me, _pleaded_ to change the Hollywood sign into Bite Me, and overall annoyed out of my nonexistent toga. (It existed, but I hated wearing it, so right now I was in a MUCH more comfortable summer outfit.)

Finally my savior from the little brats was heralded by the sounds of horses neighing and the barely perceptible to anyone but a god squeak of chariot wheels turning. With a small bump and a skid, none other than Percy Jackson landed, pulled by the flying chariot owned by Camp Half-Blood. Beside him was Annabeth, fingering her knife and smirking at me.

"Hey guys!" I greeted with an only-slightly-evil-grin. "Got my message, I see."

"Came right away," Percy replied easily. "How's the quest coming?"

I shrugged. "Well enough. So, you've already met the flock. Easy peasy. Ready to go?"

Percy nodded and twirled his pen, Riptide, between his fingers. "Ready as we'll ever be."

"That's gonna have to be good enough," I laughed. Concentration, I swirled my index finger in a little twirly pattern on the right-hand-side of the H, drawing a few marks and then the Greek symbols βόλτα - my name, Ride, in that infernal language.***1*** With a flash, a pure white glowing doorway that was blinding all of us appeared, and I, being the good example, stepped through.

We emerged into a vast golden throne room, with gleaming white marble pillars and a glass roof that peered up into space. Ghosts floated around, glowing faintly blue, and most tipped their hats or heads to me as we passed by. At the end of the throne room was an obsidian throne, inlaid with beautiful shining silver that made it look like constellations. Upon it sat a young woman, dressed in an ornate black toga also embroidered with constellations. What looked like stardust swirled around her. She had pale skin and straight, raven black hair that was drawn up into a neat braid. Her eyes were eerie and pure silver.***2***

I dipped my head to her. "Nyx."

"Ride," she answered, a musical lilt to her voice. "Our newest sibling, I see."

I grinned. "At your service. Kind of."

She laughed. "What is it you wish, Sister?"

"Who's that?" Gazzy whispered. I glared at him and opened my mouth to scold him, but Nyx beat me to it.

"I am Nyx, Greek goddess of the Night."

Gazzy waved. "Hi! I'm Gazzy, this is my sister Angel, that's-"

I clamped my hand over his mouth. "Let's just say his name is Shut Up."

Nyx laughed again, waving her hand dismissively. "Oh, I don't mind."

"No, but I do," I growled under my breath, giving Gazzy the stink eye and releasing him. "We're here to see about our little quest. I didn't really have a specific idea of what they were supposed to do, but I think _you_ might have a few things..."

This time, Nyx's smile was a little scary. "Indeed I do. How would you nine like to run some errands for me?"

The flock and Percy all gulped. I smirked. Annabeth fingered her knife.

Behind us, a ghost's head fell off, and he muttered, "Oops."

Being a goddess is so fun.

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><p><em>*1~ Note that Google Translate does not include Ancient Greek, so this is a more modernized word. The old symbols may or may not be different. I work with what I can ;)<em>  
><em>*2~ Nyx, or Νύξ, is a minor Greek goddess that as far as I know has not appeared in any of the PJO books, therefore her description is entirely made up. (As well as her personality.)<em>

**Well, hope you enjoyed! I know, it's REALLY REALLY SHORT, but what can I say? I have my bad days. And my good days. And my lazy days~. Today is one of the latter ;)**

**-Kat  
><strong>


	14. Tempest

**OMIGOD GUYS! 102 REVIEWS? YOU PEOPLE ARE AMAZING! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND STICKING WITH ME AND MY CRAZINESS!  
><strong>

**Btw, sorry this is so late. ;P PandaBearSoul originally pestered me to update this on her birthday, buuut... I kind of forgot. *whistles innocently* So. Yeah. Well, um, hehehe... here you go? ^^;  
><strong>

**Oh yeah, Ride drops a bad word at the end here. Not sure if you count it as a TERRIBLE word, it was in the Avengers, but... XD  
><strong>

PandaBearSoul: Aww, I guess this means no Starbucks trips... T^T ;)  
><span>Metal Flowers:<span> Sorry! D: I'm not much of a Greek geek (lol), so I don't know these kinds of details... ^.^; Hehe. Well, I'm too lazy to edit it, so I'll just stop referring to her as a minor goddess. I'm a ninja by luck and awesomeness. (And practice.) I'm German/Austrian/Russian/American, so... not Asian. D: But thanks for reviewing! Again!  
><span>VilaDeath:<span> She's based off of me... :)  
><span>readingisdabest:<span> Of course it would be! I'd transform my brother into a toad. Muhahahaha...  
><span>ThatGirlWit<span>hTheTealStreaks: Hi! :D And it was actually pretty fun. I had great friends, we had fun, all that stuff. ^.^ Thanks for reviewing!  
><span>ANONYMOUS:<span> Well, now you're easy to pick out XD That sounds like a great idea! I like it so much, I'm adding it in right now. (Thanks, by the way - I had next to no idea for a good errand for them to run =3=; ^.^)  
><span>DeadlyVampLove:<span> Sure, maybe once I get some of my older ones finished! What stories do you have in mind? c;  
><span>TheCoolPartyEmoClownClub:<span> Awesome screen name. Thanks, by the way! ^^ I'm glad you likey~!  
><span>FAX SHAX SHADOW MAX:<span> Thanks, I plan to. ;)  
><span>cwphantom217:<span> Awwww, thanks! ^^ I'm so happy!  
><span>Guest:<span> Well, awesome! I plan to update ASAP. ;)  
><span>FrenchFryLovesMaximumRide:<span> Yes, I know you, you have reviewed before. XD Thank you! AND YOU ARE! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!  
><span>PandaBearSoul:<span> *chops* Yes ma'am. Congratulations. You are the 101th reviewer. c;  
><span>calianngirl:<span> Thank you! I will, don't worry.

**Thanks to cwphantom217, FAX SHAX SHADOW MAX, Lunar Wolf 28, ak98us, Maxlight, Jazaline Coriana Lupus, pattersonfan, PandaBearSoul, Battle Hallows, Lootmagoot, KuroEnzeru, maandfangforever, TealStreaks, .X, and Riddle'sDarkQueen for favoriting/alerting! (I'm gonna start doing these now ;D) Damn, there are a lot of you. O_e  
><strong>

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>"Alright," Nyx continued pleasantly. "Here's your first errand: Go find my sister, Eos, goddess of the dawn. She's been missing for some time, and I'm getting worried. I'll give you a little something to help you locate her. You up to the task?"<p>

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Iggy muttered.

I whacked him around the head. "Because it's part of your quest. Sort of. I have nothing better to do, so I'm dragging you eight along with me." Then, faking my best 'angel-innocent' smile, I continued, "Besides, you guys owe me a favor."

"We do?" Fang scoffed.

"Yes," I glared at him. "Those weapons? You'd be dead now without them. And I made them for you. Welllll... technically I'm honor-bound to save you if you're near death and I'm standing _right there_, but still. Now you can save your own worthless asses!"

"Thanks... not," Fang rolled his eyes.

Damn. He's getting used to me. This is getting to be less fun...

"We accept, Nyx," I responded to the goddess before us formally. "Thank you."

She smiled. (Slightly sadistically.) "Oh, it's no problem. I'll record their suffering on tape and invite you over some time."

I grinned. I liked her already. "Sounds like fun! We're off."

I took off, the flock following (and looking a little horrified), while Percy and Annabeth prodded their hippocampi and tailed us.

"Our... suffering?" Gazzy gulped.

I laughed. "Of course! It builds character."

"No it doesn't..." he whimpered.

Again, more laughter. We soared through the air, me doing flips and enjoying the feel of the wind in my face. It took us a while, but according to Nyx's instructions, we were just supposed to follow the rising sun. So that's what we did. As the sky lightened and the sun came up, strange wind patterns began to buffet us as we continued on our merry way.

"What's with this wind?" Nudge yelled up to me.

"No idea!" I hollered back.

It got worse and worse, and before long the hippocampi had ditched us for the sea below and Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, and I were degraded to the humiliating task of pulling Percy and Annabeth's chariot. In fact, I voiced my thoughts almost exactly in this way. "This is absolutely degrading!" I shouted back to Percy and Annabeth. Annabeth laughed, and Percy looked unsure whether or not to laugh at a god. Good for him.

"I still think this is pointless," Iggy commented loudly in my ear.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, well, get used to it. A lot of the things I'm gonna make you do are pointless."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" he shot back cockily. I didn't even grace that with an answer.

"So who is this 'Eos' we're looking for?" Nudge asked Annabeth, raising her voice above the wind and looking back, wobbling in the air as she adjusted for the strange currents of air.

Annabeth pursed her lips and thought a moment. "I'm not entirely sure," she yelled, "pretty much all I know is that she's the goddess of the dawn, while her sister Nyx is goddess of the night. According to legend she's a little testy, which probably accounts for the fact that Nyx told Ride she'd record our suffering..."

"Yeah, don't remind me," Nudge groaned, and I had to suppress one of my best cackles.

After a while of riding the stormy waves of wind, it got a little tiring, and I shifted my grip on the golden rope I was holding to pull the chariot along. We'd managed to rig up three more, one for each of us that was pulling, and Angel was flying tail. Nudge was flying point, trying to lead us through the fog and clump of clouds that was setting in. So far it wasn't going very smoothly. (Pardon the pun.)

"Count off!" I half-screamed, trying to make sure I was heard.

"Fang."

"Gazzy~!"

"Nudge~!"

"Iggy!"

Annabeth and Percy glanced at each other, then followed suit.

"Percy!"

"Annabeth!"

"You're doing it all out of order," I informed the flock, scowling slightly. "Have you forgotten in the short time I was gone?"

"And have you forgotten how to count?" Gazzy screamed back.

I froze. Not literally, that would send us plummeting. _Oh crap. Angel._

"Angel?!"

We all turned to look, almost sending us into the quickly whipped-up ocean below. No sign of the blonde girl. "We have to go back!" Gazzy pleaded. For a moment, I hesitated indecisively, then scanned the waves with my super-vision.

...

"Right. Iggy, Nudge, keep the chariot up. Fang, Gazzy, with me."

All four flock members nodded, and, oblivious to the indignant cries from Percy and Annabeth, we dived through the tempest and hurtled towards the ocean. Of course, our dramatic scene was ruined when Percy went flying by us on collision course with the waves, saluting and grinning on his way down.

I rolled my eyes and muttered, knowing no-one else could hear me,

"That son of a bitch."

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><p><strong>Next update: ?<strong>

**Who knows. /: See ya next time~!  
><strong>

**_Kat_  
><strong>


	15. Amnesia

**Happy to see you liked it. c: Here's more!**

**Also, the next chapter may be just as far in the future as this one took, because I have decided to emulate my favorite author (TeenMuggle - check out her story, Ancient Relics, IT'S AMAZING!) and stockpile chapters. Sooo, I'll write a few chapters, then post the next one and write a few more. c: I'll be on a train to Munich day after tomorrow for six hours, so I'll slave over my iPad's keyboard~ -w-**

readingisdabest: Eh, he probably did, but Ride is another god, so he can't do much... c;  
><span>maandfangforever:<span> Thanks! I like to do shoutouts because... eh, it's fun. ;D  
><span>stillANONYMOUS:<span> Ooh, that does sound interesting... *cackles* Thanks for the review!  
><span>TealStreaks:<span> Yep. :D Thanks for the review! ^^  
><span>Courtney DiLaurentis:<span> Yeah, she's fun to write. ;)  
><span>PandaBearSoul:<span> When I first saw 'brace,' I thought you meant teeth wise. o3o Well, we'll have to go to Starbucks sometime. And I got Nevermore too! :P Also, having fun at schooool~?  
><span>calianngirl:<span> XD Thanks. I dare because I am me. o3e

-I really cannot keep up with writing out review responses and all the favoriting/alerting, so I APPRECIATE IT but I really am (too lazy) too busy. DX-

**Thanks to A LOT OF PEOPLE for favoriting/alerting!**

**EDIT: fixed a few mistakes xc I'm so tired.**

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>Yeah, turns out I can project my thoughts into other people's heads. And naturally, this little godly talent decided to rear its ugly head right at the second I called the son of Poseidon a 'SOB'. So, diving down to the ocean and whipping around waves, I looked down to see one Percy Jackson's head bobbing through the stormy water, a frown on his face.<p>

"Was that you?" he all but screamed over the wind.

"Dunno, it's so loud I can barely hear my own thoughts!" I hollered back, letting a wicked grin creep over my face - letting him know that yes, that was me.

"I'd call you a name, but my dad'll hear and box my ears!" he joked loudly back, gesturing vaguely to the water around him.

I grinned and streaked away, the task at hand returning to my mind. Right, Angel. Where in the hell was that girl? I swear, the slightest chance of her martyring and/or sacrificing and/or making herself disappear, and she took it. Where do I start on my list?

Snorting in irritation, I focused my keen godlike (come now, I'm being modest) eyes on the foamy seas. Nope, nope, nope. Blond hair... let's see, that's a piece of driftwood. That's another piece of wood. Wood, wood, something from the Japanese tsunami, wood, wo- is that a canoe? Yep. Funny, I didn't know the Japanese had canoes. Wood, wood, wood, dead body, wood, wood, wait. Dead body?

Cursing the weather and resolving to have a few words with a certain sea god later, I swooped down and heaved the sopping mess out of the water with a few helpful gusts of wind that I bent around my wings. I can affect the elements around me (and disappear in a flash of flame - very fun), but only to a small degree; thus the continuation of the storm. Examining the corpse, I discovered to my slight relief that it was not indeed dead but barely breathing, and the blonde hair convienently belonged to Angel.

"Well, found her," I muttered, dragging her with me as I beat my wings hard to return to the chariot. It was being tossed about quite a bit, Annabeth struggling with the reins, but I set Angel down and let both her and Nudge fuss over the half-drowned girl. Reaching out with the helpful GPS-like ability inside me that allows me to detect mutants, I found Fang and Gazzy and called them back telepathically. (They can wonder about that later.)

Getting our act together, the small team flew in a protective ring around the chariot, half forgetting about Percy until a jet of water plumed in front of us, launching a cross-looking son of Poseidon through the air and onto the chariot.

"Way to stick together, guys," he complained.

"Oops," I responded, smirking.

Emerging from the storm, we searched a bit for some land, and found it in a rocky island protruding from the waves, unnamed and not serving any purpose. Setting Angel down, Nudge and Annabeth continued to tend for her while the rest of us seperated and scowled at our feet. Percy dived back in the ocean and took great delight in creating small, carefully aimed projectiles of water that were shot at great velocities at particularly me. To my great pleasure, I found that they were small enough I could shoot them back.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" he asked off-handedly, giving up on attacking and instead trying to mold sculptures in the water.

"No idea," I admitted. "I'm still new to the whole god thing, remember? Also- did you know I could do this?" Grinning wickedly, I disappeared in a column of fire, then reappeared a few feet away.

Percy marveled. "Awesome. I can't do anything with fire except douse it."

"Ha," I snorted. "I'm bored and Angel hasn't woken up. Riddle?"

"Sure," he shrugged, and made the water support him as he lay on his stomach with his head resting on his folded arms.

Thinking hard, I searched for a good riddle, then found one and snapped my fingers.

_"The beginning of eternity_

_the end of time and space_

_the beginning of every end_

_and the end of every place. What am I?"_

"Ugh," Percy complained. "I'm no good at riddles. Um... Zeus? The gods? A flying purple unicorn?"

Already fed up with his pathetic attempts, I answered exasperatedly, "No, the letter 'e'."

"Ohhh..."

We waited in silence a while longer, then Angel broke it by coughing up some water and lifting her head. "Ow- where am I?"

"I fished you out of the ocean, and we're on some island in the middle of nowhere," I responded in a bored tone.

Blinking, she frowned, "And you are?"

All heads whipped around and a few jaws dropped. "You've got to be joking," I deadpanned.

"No, I'm not joking," she responded, confused. "I don't know who you are. Or," she twisted around to look at the rest of the flock, "the rest of you. Who are you people?"

"We're your family!" Nudge spluttered. "That's Max- Ride, and she, uh, became a goddess a week or so ago... and you grew up with us. We escaped from the school. Are supposed to save the world."

Angel snorted. "Save the world? We're all kids. Can you read thoughts?" she asked out of nowhere, wrinkling her brow.

"No..." was the unanimous answer.

"I can!" I supplied cheerfully, raising a hand for emphasis. "But you wouldn't know that either, I suppose. You also can't read my thoughts." I tapped my temple. "Goddess, you know."

"But do you have wings?" she pressed, flexing hers.

"We do," Iggy replied, growing horror evident in his tone. "But those two-" he gestured in the vague direction he'd heard Percy and Annabeth's voices from "are demigods, children of the gods."

"They your kids?" Angel inquired, turning to me.

We all burst out laughing. "No way in hell!" I wheezed. "I'm new."

After several more questions, Nudge drew the girl off to the side and began to painstakingly recount the story of the blonde's entire life, up until the storm. It took almost forty five minutes, during which the rest of us conversed frantically about what to do now. With Angel as good as down, it'd be a little harder to find Eos without her help.

And so, Percy went fishing, I doodled in the sand with a stick, Gazzy complained with Iggy, Fang was stoic, and Nudge finally finished her story. Annabeth had been making small repairs to the chariot, holding us back a little longer. Angel splashed through the waves, carefree as I had never seen her before. Diving under, she stayed that way for several minutes.

"Done!" Annabeth announced triumphantly.

"It's trying to eat my face!" Percy cried, holding a rather large fish away from his head.

"I feel a fart coming on," Gazzy shouted.

"Gas mask!" Iggy responded in advance.

"I want a smoothie," Nudge complained.

"I'm bored," Fang pointed out.

Rolling my eyes, I was about to inform them that all that information was highly unhelpful, when Angel popped up from the water and interrupted.

"Did you know I have gills?"

Groaning, I slammed my head into my hands.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm listening to the song the robots play for Chell at the end of Portal 2 over and over again. Is that bad? Of course it isn't.<strong>

**Happy latelatelatelatelatelate birthday, PandaBearSoul. Sesame, I bought you a shirt. c:**

**_Kat_  
><strong>


	16. Memories

**Short mini-chapter for yhu people. c: Next will be more action, I promise.**

* * *

><p><span>Wings of a Goddess<span>

* * *

><p>I waited impatiently, tapping my foot, as Annabeth slowly started to explain to Angel the concept of a flying chariot. Despite having WINGS, the girl kept denying it was physically possible, until the exasperated demigod demonstrated. Then her jaw dropped.<p>

"Did you see that, Ride?" she asked excitedly, clinging on to my arm. I brushed her off carefully. She'd quickly branded me as her favorite, and was rather attatched to my right arm. Damn was it annoying.

"Yes," I answered, irritated. "I've seen it before. You have wings, and I have eyes. Why is this so surprising?"

Angel pursed her lips. "Look at its weight and mass," she instructed, gesturing. "Something of that density and size should not be able to fly through the air. We have been genetically engineered, so our bones and body structure is specifically modified to fly. Chariots were never built to fly."

"If you have amnesia, how come you know all of that crap?" I muttered, walking away and pointedly ignoring her babble of scientific answers.

Finally ready to take off, I led the way into the air, reveling in the pleasant feel of wind streaking past my feathers. I could hear the rest of the flock following, along with Angel, who flew pretty well for someone that forgot she even had wings. Next came the whistling of the flying chariot through the wind.

We leveled out like an airplane, then sailed easily through the sea air towards the rising sun. Nyx told us that once we got closer, Eos' lair would be revealed to us, but so far no luck. Muttering under my breath, I cursed the goddess and her damn riddles.

"Can you sense where I am?" Angel asked curiously, swooping closer to me. "You know, if you're the goddess of mutants and all."

"Yes," I deadpanned, flapping a little higher to get away from her.

"Can you sense all the mutants in the entire world?" she continued eagerly, following my flight path and waiting for an answer with eyes the size of saucers. (I'm not even kidding, this kid must have the mutant gene for outrageously sized eyes.)

Grumbling, I shot over my shoulder, "When I want to. Stop following me." Tucking in my wings suddenly, I did a steep dive towards the sea below, hurtling down at speeds that peeled my cheeks back into a sort of grimace. Flapping hard, I pulled up a second before hitting the waves, and flew about a foot above the water. Dipping one foot down, I compensated with my wings, and created a rooster tail behind me. Then, flapping and angling my body, I shot towards the sky with a whoop.

More whoops startled me, and I turned to see that the entire flock had followed, pulling off dives and rooster tails before twirling upwards towards the lightening pink-streaked clouds. Narrowing my eyes, I muttered, "So that's how they wanna play it, huh?" Then, grinning in evil anticipation, I hovered in midair and waited until their momentum shot them past me.

Yelling "THIS IS SPARTA!" I streaked past them, then yelled again, "FOR WINGS! FOR SPARTA! FOR MAYONNAISE!" and dropped past them once more. Our battle cry was an old inside joke from the times the flock and I had been inseperable, a family. I forgot about it in the rush of exhiliration.

Cheering, they echoed, "MAYONNAISE AND CROUTONS RULE THE WORLD!" and dropped after me.

Unbeknownst to me, Percy and Annabeth were watching us completely calmly, sailing along straight in their chariot and heads dipping and turning as they followed our movements.

After a while of silence, Annabeth commented, "You know, for a goddess, she's pretty childish."

* * *

><p><strong>I mean, come on. You can't spend years with someone and never have an inside joke. XD I should know, me and my friends had like sixty after four months.<strong>

**_Kat_  
><strong>


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